The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 443: New Protocols
It would be a while before Lane would get a chance to put his newly acquired (and mildly inaccurate, at best) knowledge into practice by commencing a proper ring hunt. Since he was relying on the comparison between his and Damien’s fingers, the best way to estimate a proper size was to try on the rings himself to see how loose they were...
But he didn’t really have time to do so, because he had to attend another kind of hunt.
Monster hunt, since the dungeons wouldn’t clear themselves!
Well, it was fine. Damien was still very caring and attentive towards Lane, showing absolutely no signs of thinking about leaving. Meanwhile, Lane had no other murder attempts planned, at least not in the near future. Thus, trapping Damien in a marriage could wait for a bit longer. As long as no more incidents happened until then, it should all work out somehow.
If there was anything that Lane was uneasy about, that was the fact that Damien had refused to sleep with him... But even that didn’t last long. Lane’s injuries soon fully healed, and once there was no trace of them left on his smooth, pale skin, Damien didn’t resist Lane’s seduction attempts any longer. They might not have time to roll around in bed too much, since they had several raids scheduled pretty much back-to-back, but still. When they did have a moment, it was as good as always, so Lane was satisfied.
Their initial raids had all gone well as well. They were just short raids, each lasting two, three days, meant to reduce the population in the remaining A-rank dungeon and the two B-rank ones, in order to temporarily delay the dungeon breaks and give the Association more time to plan the full-on clear-up operations.
All three of them were conducted in the initial elite A-rank squad. Minus Ethan, who was now disabled and had left the Association, of course. His absence was hardly noticed, though - he was just a Guide, after all. In high-ranking dungeons, all Guides, even those extensively trained in combat, were often as much of a liability as they were of any help... While they could fight the Monsters and defend themselves with the Mana weapons, their strength still couldn’t compare even to the lower-ranking Espers, and they needed their teammates to protect them, at least to some extent. The only reason why they were taken on the raids in the first place was because of the regulations...
And, well, to ensure that none of the Espers went on a rampage, as it would have been even more troublesome than having to watch over a few Guides was.
Either way, everything proceeded as normal (as normal as it could be in this unusual situation where the Association had four higher-ranking dungeons to raid). They completed the initial raids according to plan...
After which, it came the time to tackle Gate A29-5, where the lizards and spider monsters lived, again.
Naturally, they couldn’t just march in as they were. The lizard monsters had proved to be troublesome enough for the A-rank team, and based on their short confrontation, the spider monsters were even stronger. Perhaps strong enough to warrant raising the Gate to an S-rank status. Even if the team decided to clear the surface area first, they had to be ready to take on the spiders, especially as they proceeded outside of the mapped area... No one knew what awaited them there.
What could be done to increase the chances of success, then? One option was to ask one of the Guilds for help. However, the Association didn’t want to do that - not only would it result in them losing a lot of resources that they could gather from the dungeon, but also losing face. It was bad enough that they had to rely on the Guilds during dungeon breaks and clearing the Lapis Lake... They couldn’t afford to now also ask for help with the dungeons that they had confiscated. Not to mention, they wanted to finally be able to say that their members had cleared an S-rank Gate...
So, the only viable option was to expand their elite team. Outsourcing Espers from other areas wasn’t possible, as the Association branches were overworked and understaffed everywhere, so they could only make do by transferring some of their B, and even a few C with useful enough abilities, -rankers. Although their individual strength was lower, they could work well as a team, and with the A-rankers leading them, they should stand a chance against the lizards, and even the spiders.
...That’s what the Association hoped for, at the very least.
So, the elite team greatly increased in numbers, as a few members from each high-ranking team joined them. For example, from Damien’s team, there were Hallie, Arlo, Tina, Tyler, Kiara, and Cora... Team Leaders Easton Cruz and Bella Clark, on the other hand, withdrew from the team, as the Association needed to keep a few competent, high-ranking Espers present in the Capital at all times, even as the elite team was on a raid, so that they could assist in case of a dungeon break or another emergency, but overall, the team’s overall strength had significantly increased.
Another unexpected thing that came from the situation, was that the board introduced the new, updated protocol based on the idea that Damien suggested. With more Field Agents joining the elite team to go on the raids, they had fewer Agents left to conduct the inspections... And even if they wanted to push all the work onto the remaining ones, it simply wouldn’t be humanly possible, not with the old rules, thus, the Association had no choice but to make some changes. It was still only in the ’testing’ phase, with just a few teams working according to the new protocol...
Still, it was being introduced much faster than anyone would have expected. Normally, unless people’s lives (or a lot of money) were literally at stake, the board would take months to deliberate on every tiny change...
But the necessity was able to push even their rusty brains towards progress. Especially when they had a solution pretty much delivered to them on a silver platter.
As for Lane, he had mixed feelings about the change in the protocol. He had heard about it, and it made sense... It was even aligned with what he had told Damien back in the Eldenveil. From the Association’s point of view, it was a beneficial change to introduce.
It was just that... What was good for the Association, wasn’t necessarily good for Lane. Even though he was technically their member. Even though the inspections were boring, and he didn’t mind not going on them any longer.
However, the problem was that with the new protocol, the chances of any dungeon breaks occurring would be greatly reduced. And while Lane personally didn’t mind - he was mildly indifferent towards the dungeon breaks and all the pain and suffering that they caused, but that didn’t mean that he enjoyed them. Well... Aside from the fact that they gave him extra opportunities to have fun hunting monsters, of course - the point was that the dungeon breaks were an important part of the secret organization’s plans. They were a necessary step in creating the Restricted Zones, which then would turn into the Forbidden Zones... Only with their creation could they proceed with Manaforming the world.
Now, not being able to create any more Restricted Zones wasn’t necessarily an issue. They already had five of them in the Capital, and that should be enough to proceed with the plan... The problem was that once the Association fully introduced this new protocol, Blanc and the others would surely start pressuring Lane to move forward with the next step even more than they were already doing. Firstly, because they would no longer be able to continue with what they had been doing until now (or what they had been supposed to be doing, since Lane had kind of been slacking off on planting the Fertilizer for a while... Or rather, he had completely given up on that), so the only logical thing to do would be to move on. And secondly...
Because the Association was finally starting to act. They were finally updating their protocols and policies, and the more they did that, the more it could affect the secret organization’s operations, as they would also have to adjust. And as the changes that the Association was introducing weren’t working in their favor...
The faster they acted, the better.
It was weighing heavily on Lane’s mind as he boarded the minibus, heading to the Gate A29-5’s site. So far, he hadn’t received any new e-mails from Blanc regarding the new protocols and what they meant for them... But it was only a matter of time. Soon enough, he was going to be flooded with reports, situation assessments, and countless action plan proposals...
And in this crucial moment, he was going to be gone, unreachable for at least a week or two, maybe more.
Leaning against the backrest, Lane let out a heavy sigh.
As much as he liked dungeons, they had one crucial flaw.
There was no Wi-Fi connection inside.
